The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

paranoia

Rodney’s son asked him to pick up some nicotine patches, so he did. Rodney, an ex-smoker himself, knows the agony of nicotine withdrawal, and was happy to help him out. Up to a point. He wasn’t happy enough to let Target scan his driver’s license and hold on to the information that he had bought nicotine patches when he hasn’t smoked in years. The thing is, his caution is entirely justified. He could very well land on a data broker’s list of recent smokers. [More]

Yep, it’s another Walmart receipt checker story! At the end of it, the OP asks, “What should I do?” And I sigh. I really don’t know. Don’t shop at Walmart anymore? Try to encourage your friends to not give their business to any company that acts in such a hostile way to honest, albeit uncooperative, customers? Spend a ton of money on a lawsuit that Walmart will use its very deep pockets to fight? [More]

It turns out that weird evening bank verification call from AmEx was legit. Brandon wrote back, “After reading all the comments on Consumerist, it stoked my fear of fraud even more, so I called Amex security. They verified the call was legitimate and was from American Express. It was just poor customer service after all.”

The complete essay, “Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace,” contains some of the most amusing paranoid delusional crap we’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, some of it criminal in nature, but it speaks to the lengths one might have to go to “live off the grid” as it were, in modern America.

Even before scaring people into giving up their email addresses by spreading tales of sex offender bogeymen, Florian McCann did not have a good rep in Denver. Commentors Pelagius and AcilletaM found several complaints and even news items about McCann’s Mile HI Aeration company. Consumers complained about being billed and turned over to collections for aerations that were never performed. Frequently, poor service and damage to lawn sprinklers appear among the complaints. The BBB has over 339 complaints lodged against the company in the past 36 months, most unresolved. When Channel 7 asked Mile Hi back in 2002 about why it refuses to address complaints, they said they “don’t kiss up” to its customers.

Our inside man at the Colorado Department of Public Safety tells us the guy posting pedophile-paranoia flyers all over suburban Colorado has been identified as one Florian McCann, who insists he’s “simply being a good neighbor.” The CPDS feels certain that he’s using the site, and fear-mongering, to gather email addresses, purpose unknown.

Brian Crecente — another a fellow absorbed fetus in Gawker’s bulging, all-consuming belly of blogs — wrote us with a truly scummy scam running in his neighborhood, hyping on parents’ crazed paranoia of pedophiles: